


His Return

by BrokenBookAddict



Category: The Flash (TV 2014)
Genre: Angst, Angst and Feels, Angst with a Happy Ending, Caitlin x Harry, Co-workers, Denial of Feelings, Dorks in Love, Emotional Baggage, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Emotions, Eventual Romance, F/M, Falling In Love, Feelings, Feels, Fluff, Fluff and Angst, Friends to Lovers, Friendship, Friendship/Love, Hurt/Comfort, Light Angst, Love, Love Confessions, Prompt- It's been difficult having you here, Romance, SnowHarry, Snowells, Snowellsweek2019, Tumblr: snowellsweek
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-06-18
Updated: 2019-06-18
Packaged: 2020-05-14 02:34:05
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,876
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19264183
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/BrokenBookAddict/pseuds/BrokenBookAddict
Summary: Every single window offer a different story and she wonders if there's someone out there, staring back at her wondering what her story is.





	His Return

**Author's Note:**

> As always I do not own the flash, I doown any errors. 
> 
> Day 2 for Snowells week. Prompt- "Its been difficult having you here."

The hall is dark or at least partially so, the strip of lighting running across the top of the wall offers only a dull glow. The hall is also quiet, deserted even, the whole building is in fact. The team having earlier disbanded and off they went to fill they're rare free night off doing whatever activity they desired.  
  
With everyone gone, she is alone here in this vast building and to anyone else, that could be a daunting thought but it isn't, to her it's welcome. For the last few weeks, life at the lab hasn't been easy going and not just the work side of things. The team had grown gaining two new team members, Sherloque and of course, Nora. It is still taking some time getting use to having the future West-Allen offspring around. So not only were they adapting to the change in team dynamics, they also faced the threat of a new criminal. It always seems as if once one crisis is extinguished, another flares to life.  
  
But none of that is what's bothering her, no.  
  
It had been two months since his departure before he returned back as suddenly as he left to this earth, duffle bag slung over his shoulder as he appeared in the cortex doorway. She still remembers the volatile mix of emotions fighting inside of her as she watched the others happily greet him. She'd been beyond happy to see him looking well, after everything that had happened, that had been fantastic as well as hearing his reassurance that he was doing okay. She'd also been angry and hurt, emotions she had buried deep down rearing their ugly head as she stood across from him. Somehow she'd pushed it all away, clearing her mind to cross the room and hug him as casually as she could, like she had before knowing it would raise questions if she didn't.  
  
After that she'd withdrawn to the sidelines, offering to the conversation only when required. After his initial arrival, she had kept her distance but had done her best to not be frosty. Pun intended.   
  
That has continued on for the last few weeks, that is, until tonight. This vast building that she had thought empty, turns out is incorrect.  
  
As she turns the corner to head into the newly discovered lounge for a cup of coffee and a change of scenery, she stops short when he appears at the other end of the corridor. It's almost like one of those old westerns, where two people stand off, both waiting for the other to make the first move and shoot. No one shoots of course, they just stand there and stare, waiting for the other to break and when that person does, she's surprised to find it actually him.  
  
"We should talk."  
  
Caitlin doesn't know what there is to talk about. "I said all I had to say."  
  
Harry moves closer but keeps a distance between them. "I didn't."  
  
"Really?" She says rhetorically, the word drenched in sarcasm. "I recall different, I recall you saying exactly enough."  
  
"Caitlin..."  
  
She ignores him. "Which is why I'm confused now with you saying we need to talk when for me, there's nothing left to say."  
  
He runs a hand through his hair and takes another step towards her. His approach of keeping a respectable distance is slowly crumbling. "People change, circumstances change." His eyes, so blue and bright, implore with her, almost begging.  
  
Despite it all, her resolve weakens. "What do you want, Harry?" Defeat shrouds every word and she hates herself for giving in when all she wants his to protect herself.  
  
He looks back at her before shifting his gaze to the room that had been her intended destination. "Can we-- would you like a coffee?"  
  
Caitlin debates whether to decline his invitation but decides against it. Coffee had been her reason for the trip here, as well as the change of scenery. Instead of answering she walks into the lounge and hears his footsteps as he follows behind.

She turns to watch as he heads around the counter, reaching up to take two of the large star labs mug out of the long lineup. The sound of the machine as it brews the blend lulls her and she's glad he gives her this moment of peace. She moves away and up the steps, coming to stand in front of the large windows that overlook the skyline of Central City beyond. Her eyes rake over the buildings, countless windows blacked out or alive with light. Countless stories from those within, workers in offices, families in homes, friends in bars and lovers in restaurants. Every single window offer a different story and she wonders if there's someone out there, staring back at her wondering what her story is. Do they see the bio engineer working late or the heartbroken woman she tries to hide?  
  
Her wonderings are shattered when Harry appears beside her, offering her a steaming mug of coffee.  
  
"Thank you," she whispers politely, wrapping her hands around it to draw warmth.  
  
He doesn't reply.  
  
Instead they stand there side by side, looking out at the city and its crushing to say the silence isn't companionable. It tense and uncomfortable, like waiting for the inevitable bomb to drop.  
  
"How have you been?"  
  
It's a question she hadn't expected from him. Those words lately always seem to be directed at him and with good reason. The question for her, she doesn't answer, for good reason. Instead she offers a truth that will probably hurt him and it takes courage for her to say it.  
  
_"It's been difficult having you here."_  
  
Harry swallows hard and glances at her. She's looking out the window, her shoulders slumped, body tense. He hates himself just that little bit more. "I can understand that."  
  
Caitlin looks at him now. "Can you?" There's a sharpness to her questions, those two words almost cutting.  
  
"I want to explain, I want to--"  
  
She turns to him and raises her hand, halting any further words from him. "This may sound harsh but I don't want or need you to explain anything. I understood perfectly fine."  
  
"Caitlin, please just..."  
  
But no, she shakes her head. Her wall crumbles and her face says it all, how much hurt she's felt. She says it too anyway. "I took a chance and I told you how I felt. I wanted you and I wanted to be by your side, through everything. You didn't want that. You didn't..." she falters when her voice breaks and she takes a step back away from him, as if the distance is beneficial to her. It isn't. "I took the chance and then I had to stand by and watch as the man I care about disappeared. Day by day another piece vanished and I could do nothing." It hurt as much now to think about as it did then when it was happening.  
  
Harry takes in a shuddering breath. He sets down his coffee and takes the step forward that she had taken back, closing back the distance between them. "That night, when you came to me and you told me how you felt, it was everything I dare hope for. Here was this beautiful, remarkable, special woman standing right in front of me, telling me how she's fallen in love... with me..." he edges one step closer. "I'd never entertained the idea of moving on, I didn't want. I fought it and it wasn't until Jesse came here and we talked and she told me it was time to move on that I realised I already had. Sitting in Jitters across from you, I knew then that I had been ignoring how I felt. It wasn't some big revelation, it just... was. And then everything happened and you came to me, you came and you told me and I was losing myself Caitlin. The man I was was disappearing and I couldn't do that to you, I couldn't become a burden and put you through losing someone else you loved. We both know all to well the experience of losing someone you love."  
  
Caitlin stares back at him, a mixture of feeling coursing through her. For as long as she's known him, she has never heard him speak so openly about his feelings. This new balance he now has after his return is surely something to behold. What's more, is his words and the meaning behind them.  
  
"You pushed me away, to protect me, to..."

He sighs heavily and it's rather ragged. His eyes so blue, so emotional. He looks like he's trying not to cry.  
  
Her heart clenches in her chest. She's only ever seen him upset when Jesse had been in danger or hurt. She sets her mug aside absently.  
  
"It was never about my not loving you, Caitlin." He tells her softly, holding her gaze as he shrugs. "I didn't want you to waste your time on a lost cause."  
  
She bites her lip almost hard enough to draw blood as tears flood her vision. "Why didn't you tell me?"  
  
Harry huffs a laugh. "You're stubborn and you would have argued."  
  
Caitlin nods. "I would have."  
  
He takes the last step until they're face to face, chest to chest with hardly no gap between them.  
  
Her breathing hitches.  
  
"I had a lot of time to think while I was gone. One thing I always knew was that I wanted to come back. I know I'm not the same man I was before but I-- I'm asking for you to take another chance."  
  
She stares into his eyes. She's been so hurt these last few months thinking her chance had been ruined by unrecipocated feelings. Now she knows with a shadow of a doubt that never was the case. Almost afraid this will all shatter to reveal itself as a dream, she reaches out to cup his face. The price of day old stubble hits the sensitive pads of her fingertips. She sucks in a breath when his hands grasp her hips pulling her tighter against him. Keeping eye contact, she does as he had asked and takes another chance. Repeating the words to him she had said that night in his workroom.  
  
"I've fallen in love with you."  
  
It's the response she had hoped for that night but didn't get, now she has.   
  
His eyes fall shut and his forehead drops to hers. A shuddering breath escapes him and his body relaxes in relief.  
  
"I love you too, Caitlin."  
  
A lone tear escapes and gentle lips kiss it away. She opens her eyes to find his. It's a brief shared look before his lips are on hers. It's everything she imagined it to be and more. It's steady and slow, passion burning low between them like embers of a fire, smouldering and crackling with gentle intensity.  
  
In the dying minutes of the day as midnight approaches, the view for anyone looking in from any of those windows across the skyline, they would see a couple coming together in an embrace long desired. A kiss filled with so much love. Two people taking the first steps toward a long and happy life together.  
  
The end.

**Author's Note:**

> Hopefully you enjoyed this fic for day 2 of Snowells week. Fear not, another one will be along later. 
> 
> As always, thank you for reading. ❤


End file.
